One syllable: Drown.
drown
/dɹaʊn/
Drown is pronounced drown (/dɹaʊn/). It has one syllable (Drown), with the stress on "Drown". Drown is a verb meaning to die by suffocation in water or to be overwhelmed by water or a force, emotion, or situation. It can also describe the act of failing to be heard or understood due to overwhelming noise or to be submerged or overwhelmed. In figurative use, it conveys being overwhelmed, lost, or subdued by something powerful.
verbDrown is a verb meaning to die by suffocation in water or to be overwhelmed by water or a force, emotion, or situation. It can also describe the act of failing to be heard or understood due to overwhelming noise or to be submerged or overwhelmed. In figurative use, it conveys being overwhelmed, lost, or subdued by something powerful.
How to Pronounce Drown
"The swimmer nearly drowned after being caught in a strong current."
"The noise from the concert threatened to drown out his speech."
"She felt her worries drown under the weight of deadlines."
Pronounced /draʊn/. It’s a one-syllable word with a diphthong /aʊ/ as in 'how' or 'now'. Start with a rounded, open-mid vowel and glide quickly into a near-close position as you move from /d/ to /r/ to /aʊ/ and finally to /n/. Mouth: lips neutral, tongue tip behind or near the teeth ridge, throat relaxed. Listen for a short, crisp release without voicing after the /n/. Reference: IPA /draʊn/, audio examples in Cambridge/Oxford dictionaries.
Two common errors: (1) Distorting the /aʊ/ diphthong into a simple /ɔː/ or /aː/ without the glide, and (2) voicing the final /n/ or adding an extra vowel before /n/. Correction: produce the /aʊ/ as a smooth vowel-glide sequence starting with a lower jaw and rounded lips, then move quickly to a neutral /n/ with a silent or very short release. Keep the /d/ and /r/ as a quick cluster without inserting an intrusive vowel.
In US/UK/AU, the core /draʊn/ rhyme stays consistent; rhoticity affects only adjacent words, not the target. US tends to have a very clear /r/ coloring preceding the diphthong in connected speech while UK may be slightly crisper with less retroflexing. Australian tends to be more centralized with subtle vowel length adjustments; the diphthong remains /aʊ/ but the surrounding consonants may soften. The main difference is mood and pace rather than a different nucleus.
The difficulty lies in accurately producing the /aʊ/ diphthong and linking it with a final /n/ without vocalizing an extra vowel or altering the r-coloring. Some speakers insert a schwa before /n/ or misplace the tongue for the /d/ and /r/ cluster, creating an unnatural sound. Practicing with minimal pairs and slow pacing helps you stabilize the glide and ensure the /n/ is crisp and not muffled.
Yes. The onset cluster /dr/ benefits from a quick, smooth transition: the tongue starts with a light touch for /d/ and immediately curls to approximate /r/. The nucleus /aʊ/ must be a single, fluid glide rather than a two-stage vowel. This prevents a broken sound and keeps the word tight. Maintaining a compact mouth shape helps avoid elongating the vowel or letting the consonants drag.
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Drown comes from Old English drūnan, related to drūnian ‘to sink, submerge’ and drūwan ‘to drown, overwhelm’, connected to Proto-Germanic *drūnōną. The term has roots in the sense of suffocating or being overwhelmed by liquid, with cognates in various Germanic languages reflecting submersion and destruction by water. In Middle English, drown appeared in texts describing drowning in rivers or seas, as well as metaphorical uses of being overwhelmed. Over time, the sense broadened in metaphorical usage to describe being overwhelmed by thoughts, emotions, or sounds, not just by water. The core meaning—loss of life or buoyancy due to water—remains central, while figurative senses gained traction from the 16th century onward, paralleling expressions like drown in noise or drown in work. First known use in English comes from earlier Germanic influences with sustained usage through Modern English, maintaining both literal and figurative distinctions.
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Words that rhyme with "Drown"
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